firebase

Ruby wrapper for the Firebase REST API.

Changes are sent to all subscribed clients automatically, so you can update your clients in realtime from the backend.

See a video demo of what's possible.

Installation

gem install firebase

Usage

base_uri = 'https://<your-firebase>.firebaseio.com/'

firebase = Firebase::Client.new(base_uri)

response = firebase.push("todos", { :name => 'Pick the milk', :'.priority' => 1 })
response.success? # => true
response.code # => 200
response.body # => { 'name' => "-INOQPH-aV_psbk3ZXEX" }
response.raw_body # => '{"name":"-INOQPH-aV_psbk3ZXEX"}'

Authentication

If you have a read-only namespace, you need to authenticate your Firebase client. firebase-ruby will attempt to determine if you are using the old or new authentication method by whether your auth string is a valid JSON string or not.

Using Firebase Database Secret (deprecated)

# Using Firebase Database Secret (deprecated)
firebase = Firebase::Client.new(base_uri, db_secret)

Using Firebase Admin SDK private key

Go to the Firebase console and under Project Settings -> Service Accounts -> Firebase Admin SDK click on GENERATE NEW PRIVATE KEY. Save the json file and use it like this:

# Using Firebase Admin SDK private key
private_key_json_string = File.open('/path/to/your/generated/json').read
firebase = Firebase::Client.new(base_uri, private_key_json_string)

You can now pass custom query options to firebase:

response = firebase.push("todos", :limit => 1)

To populate a value with a Firebase server timestamp, you can set Firebase::ServerValue::TIMESTAMP as a normal value. This is analogous to passing Firebase.ServerValue.TIMESTAMP in the official JavaScript client.

response = firebase.push("todos", {
  :name => 'Pick the milk',
  :created => Firebase::ServerValue::TIMESTAMP
})

To update multiple values that are not direct descendants, supply their paths as keys in the payload to update:

# note the empty path string here as the first argument
firebase.update('', {
  "users/posts/#{postID}" => true,
  "posts/#{postID}" => text
})

So far, supported methods are:

set(path, data, query_options)
get(path, query_options)
push(path, data, query_options)
delete(path, query_options)
update(path, data, query_options)

Configuring HTTP options

httpclient is used under the covers to make HTTP requests. You may find yourself wanting to tweak the timeout settings. By default, httpclient uses some sane defaults, but it is quite easy to change them by modifying the request object directly:

firebase = Firebase::Client.new(base_uri)
# firebase.request is a regular httpclient object
firebase.request.connect_timeout = 30

More information about Firebase and the Firebase API is available at the official website.